Blue Bell Ice Cream Home Made Vanilla. Photographed Tuesday, June 28, 2011, in the Chronicle studio in Houston.

Blue Bell Ice Cream Home Made Vanilla. Photographed Tuesday, June 28, 2011, in the Chronicle studio in Houston.

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Houston Chronicle

Image 3 of 7

Jacquelynn Arteaga, age 7, has some Blue Bell ice cream with her cousin, Jesus Leon, 14, after taking a tour of the Blue Bell facilities in Brenham, Dec. 28, 2006. Photo by Steve Campbell, Chronicle Staff

Jacquelynn Arteaga, age 7, has some Blue Bell ice cream with her cousin, Jesus Leon, 14, after taking a tour of the Blue Bell facilities in Brenham, Dec. 28, 2006. Photo by Steve Campbell, Chronicle Staff

Photo: Steve Campbell

Image 4 of 7

Blue Bell CEO and President Paul Kruse sent the truck behind him to 66 cities in 2007 to celebrate the company's 100th birthday.

Blue Bell CEO and President Paul Kruse sent the truck behind him to 66 cities in 2007 to celebrate the company's 100th birthday.

Photo: Steve Campbell, Chronicle

Image 5 of 7

An all-male team of employee taste testers met with the research and development manager at the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham, for a tasting and rating of their seasonal flavor, Cantaloupe 'n Cream, on Aug. 2, 2005.

An all-male team of employee taste testers met with the research and development manager at the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham, for a tasting and rating of their seasonal flavor, Cantaloupe 'n Cream, on Aug. 2,

"We don't know for sure if that's what it is, or if it's that we strive to have a great quality product day in and day out," he said.

The $14 million expansion of cold storage and production capacity will add about 100,000 square feet to the existing plant. "We're trying to fill the growth needs," Prazak said.

As in the existing plant, the cold storage area will feature an automated storage and retrieval system for pallets of ice cream products waiting to be shipped. "Once the product is on a pallet, we don't touch it," Prazak said.

For its construction project, Blue Bell received a tax "phase-in" that will save the company about $442,000 over eight years, said Julie Fulgham, the city of Brenham's director of development service.

Blue Bell was one of three Brenham manufacturers granted tax phase-in agreements in 2012, she said.

Along with the larger footprint, the privately held company that calls itself "the little creamery in Brenham" will add 50 employees over the phase-in period, Fulgham said. The plant currently has 875 employees.

At this time, the company isn't planning to move into other states but is considering an additional city in one of the 20 mostly Southern states where Blue Bell is already sold, said Ricky Dickson, vice president of sales and marketing.

"We don't want to outpace ourselves," Dickson said.

Despite its limited geographic range, Blue Bell is the nation's third best-selling ice cream, behind Breyers and Dreyer's, he said.

The company's top seller is Homemade Vanilla.

Initially called Brenham Creamery Company, the business opened in 1907 as a dairy farmers' cooperative, according to the company's website. It changed its name in 1930 to Blue Bell Creameries, after the Texas wildflower.

Expansion beyond Brenham started in the early 1960s, with sales in Houston, Prazak said.

In 1992, it built a second production plant in Broken Arrow, Okla., and in 1996 added a third in Sylacauga, Ala.

The company also has 57 distribution facilities scattered throughout the states where the product is sold.